Going to Qatar 2022: tickets, accommodations, etc. (non-politics)

For people who've been already, how are the views in the upper sections of Lusail and Al Bayt?

And does anyone reckon there'll be quarterfinal tickets back on sale at any point? Have tickets for the quarters at Al Bayt and Lusail, but hoping to get something lower down.

 

For anyone staying in the cabins, does it also kind of reek of sewage once u enter the bathroom?

 

Games seem to have seats available, have you seen people selling tickets at or around stadium?

 

Arriving Friday. Doing 2 x 1pm-7pm double headers which should be fine with metro and 3 x 6pm-10pm ones. Taxi/Uber the quickest way out after game 1 you reckon?
Plan to get to 6pm venue around 3pm to work out best post match getaway to the taxi rank.
Hopefully ticket app doesn't keep shitting itself. Will keep it logged on, take screen shots and bring FIFA confirmation emails to each game just in case.
For those that are already there, are Taxis and ubers plentiful and easy to get?

 

The 1-7 pm doubleheaders are easy - there are Stadium express buses that will take you from the first stadium to the 2nd.

the 6-10 pm ones will be harder. It takes about an hour to get out of the stadium and to a taxi rank, and tons more time to actually get a ride. I wouldn’t recommend it

 

Arrived in Qatar at 3:05 AM local time, after a four-flight marathon and a crazy international to international connection at Cairo (never again). I was allowed to check in at 8:30 AM, which was hugely beneficial. Took a long nap and woke up with the news that Argentina went down to Saudi Arabia. Shocking, to say the least.

I went to the France x Australia game today. Australia could not contain France's wingers. 4 x 1 ended up as a fairly generous result for Australia, which totally lost control of the game after France tied.

I'm staying at the Clusters. I took the free shuttle bus to the stadium. That part was easy, and I got there in 30 minutes or so. On the way back, there was a delay in getting the busses lined up, so there were large lines to deal with. Some fans tried to cut in front of the line and people got pissed. Local security had to sort it out.

The bus hub is a long way out. All the major entrances to the Clusters are blocked, so they funnel all the crowd through one major entrance and people head out to their units, near or far. Lots of walking throughout.

Now, my major issue: the food. There is no such thing as street vendors in here. The options consist of a handful of half ass corner restaurants, small convenience stores, and a supermarket (or hypermarket, as they call it) with two attendants checking people out. The checkout lines had at least 40 people on them. Their limited resources are completely overwhelmed. I will be going to the Costa Rica x Spain game tomorrow, but won't be doing this again.

 

Very good to hear!
I take it that you did games#8, 7 & 5 in that order. Do you have a few more triple headers planned up?
Please keep writing here about your experience.

 

I was at the Grand Supermarket tonight too - absolute chaos. There’s a larger Al Meera just up the road and I usually go there, and it’s a lot better.

for food, I’m using the Talabat app for delivery (when I’m in the clusters). Highly recommended.

 

Well, I tried today. hard. Fiasco. I attended MEX v POL and then rushed to get to FRA v AUS. Maybe my fault for trying to go to to matches next to each other (e.g., 1 hr in between as opposed to say 1st-3rd or 1st-4th match of the day). Nobody knew of the shuttles that the Hayya App mentioned to go from 974 to Al Janoub. Metro would have been too long (in retrospect as long as it would have been it may have been the best option). So we walked to the uber designated area (not really that close, a good 15-20 min walk). BIG MESS. First mistake, the have the three ride companies together in the same space with a ONE LANE in one lane out of the pick up area. Obviously a mess, since people order their ride at very different times (some ahead of getting to the pick up spot, some right when they get there) so naturally the cars are not in line in the order of when the fans arrive. Second mistake, the parking hold area is too small for the amount of fans using the services, AND the police closed the streets and did not get extra cars to get in. So only about 1/3 of those asking for rides got them within the reasonable time. Third big mistake, they release the cars in the direction of the stadium, so you get back in the traffic line with your car

We rushed and made it to min 40 of the first half

At the end of the game, 00:15 BTW, same mess to get back to our hotel

They had 12 years to get ready (and dont get me started on the frickin app-ticket thing. My ticket did not show up. 25 min before kickoff they told us in line at the ticket resolution booth to just go to the gate and show the email, as they would not have time to process everyone. So annoyed, but somehow relieved that we would get in, we ran to our gate. Well, nobody told the guys at the gate. So we had to wait there, but the pressure of too many of us, kickoff time approaching, and tempers starting to heat up, they finally got a guy with a suit and a walkie talkie to order them to basically let us in (technically without tickets)

THEY HAD 12 YEARS TO PREPARE. LONGER THAN ANY OTHER ORGANIZING COMMITTEE IN HISTORY. AND THEY STILL MANAGED TO MESS UP BIG PARTS. HOPEFULLY THERE IS STILL TIME TO FIX THINGS. PLENTY OF GAMES LEFT

 

They have a food delivery app here called Talabat. They deliver from restaurants and from Hypermarkets too and it is very cheap.

 

FIFA is to be blamed for the ticket issues, not Qatar. It seems like they are being hacked as retaliation for implementing a feature that is blocking the bots from ordering tickets. Seems to be a DDoS attack.

Also, you should not be trying to go to 2 matches that are close unless you are driving your own car.

 

The crowd at Argentina vs Saudi Arabia was OUTSTANDING. If Mexicans need to be drunk to be happy, I can only feel sorry for you.

 

I'm curious where you're getting info re: the issues being a hack? I've not seen or found anything about that. If you've seen something other than word of mouth, I'd really like to read it.
[EDIT: I'm not saying it couldn't be, only that I've yet to see any written explanation - official or otherwise - only the acknowledgment of issues.]

 

I completely disagree with the statement about the Mexico game having no atmosphere. It was even better than the Argentina Saudi Arabia atmosphere - probably helped by the size of the stadium. I was at both games and the atmosphere was loud enough to turn my fiancé into a crazy football fan overnight. She was chanting and singing at the Mexico game with pride among - and joined by the entirety of that stadium.

not denying that this World Cup’s organization has been nothing but a joke..

 

So, for the 6 - 10pm games, beat bet still would be the metro?

 

It doesn't look like hacking related. I think the ticketing platform is done by https://www.secutix.com/ (for previous editions as well) who I guess are a very established player in this space. Mobile-only tickets feature is newly launched and hence going through the first version glitches. Website functionality is stable without any glitches (other than occasional crashes). Only the new digital tickets feature is buggy.

 

Early to tell, but wonder if its feasible to take the shortest-line shuttle bus out to a metro station ( or other option) and taking an Uber from landing.

 

Thanks for all the first-hand reports, especially about the logistics. I start my journey there on Friday morning (family would disown me if I wasn't home for Thanksgiving).

Hopefully the "Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy" (that's the official name of the Qatar group running the event) will learn from what went wrong each day and improve the next day. This is a massive undertaking for a country the size of the US state of Connecticut and with a population about the size of the US state of Arkansas.

 

Huge Germany V Japan drop on the DOM site. 31 pages of tix with tons of Cat#4s.
Vamos!

Edit:
68 pages of Game 12 @Benyounes
27 pages of Spain Costa Rica

 

will Talabat deliver to a stadium parking lot?
what are their limitations for delivery destinations?

wondering if tail gating might be an option to solve for both food and logistics

 

Can someone put up a free VPN link that works please

 

RESALE DROP!!

 

I finally managed to get that elusive M50, CAT3. I guess demand for that game has tanked...

 

I’m arriving in Doha at 1 pm. Going to my apartment to check in and get to Germany v Japan, then Canada v Belgium. After that match it’s back to the apartment to crash until Thursday, when I do that all over again!

 

Is anyone not receiving an email from fifa after putting tickets up for sale? I resold them through the website and not the app.